East Oregonian
A4
Friday, December 6, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Forest plan and public opinions
T
he Forest Service is having another
go at writing new long-term
management plans for the three
national forests in the Blue Mountains and
this time, officials hope, things will be
different.
Whether this new approach yields the
success that has eluded the agency for
more than a decade, however, is no certain
thing.
The Forest Service has been working
for about 15 years to write new manage-
ment plans for the Wallowa-Whitman,
Umatilla and Malheur national forests.
Those documents serve as guidelines for
forest officials as they make separate deci-
sions about specific projects, such as tim-
ber sales, livestock grazing and recreation
projects.
Although management plans are sup-
posed to be replaced every 10 to 15 years,
the current plans for the three national for-
ests in the Blue Mountains date to 1990.
The Forest Service unveiled new plans
in June 2018. But after hearing complaints
about the plans from a variety of perspec-
tives — some opponents contend the For-
est Service didn’t propose enough logging,
while others complained the agency wasn’t
doing enough to preserve forests, among
other issues — the agency’s regional for-
ester, Glenn Casamassa, announced in
March 2019 that the agency would restart
the process.
The centerpiece of the Forest Service’s
new approach is the Blues Intergovern-
sions of the plans either by attending pub-
lic meetings or by submitting written
comments.
And hundreds of people availed them-
selves of those opportunities.
Yet, even with copious quantities of
public comments, the plans the Forest Ser-
vice put out in 2018 generated so much
dissatisfaction that Casamassa decided to
withdraw them.
The widespread condemnation was
hardly surprising.
After all, opinions about how the For-
est Service should manage these 5 mil-
lion or so acres of public land vary about
as widely as opinions on any topic. The
notion that any management plan could
come close to simultaneously satisfying
EO file photo
The Blues Intergovernmental Council has been formed to help frame the process of develop- people who think the agency isn’t cutting
ing a new methodology for forest planning for the Wallowa-Whitman, Malheur and Umatilla nearly enough trees, and people who think
national forests. A series of meetings between county commissioners and key U.S. Forest it’s cutting way too many, is not so much
Service personnel have been held across the Blue Mountain region over the last year to help naive as hopelessly optimistic.
kick-start a framework for cross-jurisdiction work.
The concept behind the Blues Intergov-
ernmental
Council is sound. Using elected
mental Council. During the past year,
communities in order to make sure that we
county
commissioners
as a sort of liaison
county commissioners from the region
are developing a plan that is gonna stand
between
the
public
and
the Forest Service
have been meeting with Forest Service
the test of time,” said Eric Watrud, super-
could
give
residents
a
stronger
sense that
officials to discuss ways to ensure that
visor of the Umatilla National Forest.
their
comments
are
not
only
considered,
That sounds reasonable.
residents of the Blue Mountains will be
but incorporated into the final product.
But it’s not as though the Forest Ser-
involved in the planning process, and that
But at some point Forest Service offi-
their concerns will be considered as Forest vice’s previous attempts to write new plans
Service employees write the management were not “open” and “inclusive,” to borrow cials need to acknowledge that the man-
agement plans will inevitably prove
a pair of adjectives from Watrud.
plans.
unpopular, in some respects, to just about
Indeed, as federal law requires, the
“The attempt here is to create just a
everyone. Such is the nature of managing
process gave residents several chances
more open, inclusive approach where the
Forest Service is working closely with our to express their opinions about draft ver-
land on behalf of the public.
OTHER VIEWS
Campaign finance
reform should be
2020 focus
Medford Mail Tribune
E
fforts to reduce the
influence of money in
Oregon politics face
an uphill battle in next year’s
legislative session for the sim-
ple reason that lawmakers
will need to vote for rules that
limit how much money they
can collect when they run for
reelection.
Ashland Sen. Jeff Golden
is heading a committee work-
ing on drafting contribution
limits that would take effect if
voters agree next November
to amend the Oregon Consti-
tution to allow that. Already,
legislative leaders from both
major parties are expressing
reservations.
Oregon is one of only five
states that imposes no limits
whatsoever on political cam-
paign contributions, because
the state Supreme Court has
ruled that limits infringe on
citizens’ free expression.
Golden is a longtime sup-
porter of campaign finance
reform.
“There is at minimum the
perception of undue influence
of money in politics,” he said.
We would put it more
strongly. This is a matter of
more than just perception.
For an example, look to
Oregon’s failure to enact
meaningful safety regula-
tions on rail shipments of
crude oil through the state,
even after an oil train derailed
and exploded in the Columbia
Gorge in 2016.
Oregon has the weakest
rules governing oil train ship-
ments on the West Coast. Two
bills that would have matched
laws on the books in Wash-
ington died without a hearing
this year.
Why? Just maybe because
railroad company campaign
contributions average $3,542
per Oregon legislator — the
sixth highest amount of any
state in the country.
Overall, corporate inter-
ests gave more per capita to
winning legislative candi-
dates in Oregon over a decade
than in any other state, docu-
mented in a series of reports
in The Oregonian earlier this
year.
Lawmakers placed a con-
stitutional amendment on
the November 2020 ballot to
allow limits on campaign con-
tributions, but failed to pass
actual limits during the 2019
session. Golden’s committee
is tasked with drawing up leg-
islation that can win support
in the short 2020 session after
a bill failed to win passage
this year. Some critics of that
measure said it didn’t go far
enough; one Republican law-
maker said it went too far.
Similar objections have
surfaced to a plan suggested
by Golden’s committee. Sen-
ate Majority Leader Ginny
Burdick, D-Portland, said the
proposal’s limits on individual
contributions were too low to
allow candidates to counter
third-party expenditures or
contributions from advocacy
groups. Republican Sen. Fred
Girod of Stayton said the pro-
posal’s limit of $15,000 from
state party committees and
others would favor Demo-
crats, who are generally sup-
ported by public employee
and teachers unions, and
called for lower limits for
committees.
That’s the downside of
expecting elected officials to
change the system that got
them elected. But it can be
done, if legislators make it
a priority. It will help if vot-
ers put pressure on their law-
makers to rein in the spend-
ing spree that now dominates
state politics.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
Trump should veto greedy Green Act
I
n a mad dash to expand all their
to the mat for the electric vehicles sub-
sidies, if not the whole package. In fact,
favorite “green” cash grabs before
he recently proposed an electric-vehi-
the end of the year, House Demo-
cles-subsidies-meets-cash-for-clunkers
crats have published their most bloated
on steroids concept that would pay to
smash and grab yet.
They call it the Green Act, but a bet- scrap every internal combustion vehicle
ter name might be the Greed Act. The
in the country in the most brazen dis-
play of wealth destruction via central
bill extends wind and solar subsidies
planning ever attempted out-
— which we’ve been prom-
ised for decades would be
side of the Communist Bloc.
temporary — for yet another
So he can be expected, at a
five years. In an effort to gain
minimum, to push hard for
support from farm states, it
the House language on elec-
tric vehicles.
revives the biodiesel credit.
That language would tri-
Most outrageously, the
ple the cap on subsidies of
Green Act cancels the phase-
200,000 per manufacturer
out of the electric vehicle sub-
P hil
sidies by tripling the per-man-
— which has already been
K erPen
ufacturer cap. It also ignores
reached by Tesla and GM,
COMMENT
rampant fraud and creates a
who of course have unleashed
new subsidy for used electric
armies of lobbyists to keep
vehicles, despite the fact the original
the taxpayer largesse flowing. A token
rationale — dependence on foreign oil
cut in the credit amount from $7,500 to
— is now completely obsolete.
$7,000 would be meaningless, thanks
Because no green cash grab would
to a new credit of up to $2,500 for used
be compete without lavishing tax-
electric vehicles.
payer dollars on the campus left, the
This program is an almost pure tax
bill includes an eye-popping $5 billion
break for the rich, and those rich are
in grants for university “environmental
well represented by their Democratic
justice” programs. Shameless.
representatives and senators. Especially
With Nancy Pelosi firmly in con-
from California, which gets nearly half
trol, the Green Act could well pass the
of all the subsidies dollars, and New
House, either by itself or more likely
York, which ranks second.
as part of a larger year-end package.
The Pacific Research Institute
So the real fight looks likely to be in
looked at IRS data and found that
the Senate, where Minority Leader
more than half of the electric car buy-
ers claiming the credit make more than
Chuck Schumer can be expected to go
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies
for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold
letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights
of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime
phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published.
$200,000 per year and nearly 80%
make more than $100,000. Just 1%
make $50,000 or less.
Worse, a significant number of the
predominantly wealthy people claim-
ing the credit are doing so fraudu-
lently. The Treasury Inspector General
found in a new report that 16,510 tax
returns claiming “potentially errone-
ous” electric vehicle tax credits, total-
ing $73.8 million. The IRS doesn’t
check VINs, and it looks like credits
have been allowed for ineligible vehi-
cles. It also appears there is a particular
problem with leased vehicles, in which
the leasing company claims the credit
and builds it into the lease payment,
but then the lessee claims the credit a
second time, effectively doubling the
subsidy.
The simplest way to end the fraud
would be to let the program phase out
as scheduled. But Congress looks at
rampant fraud and instead wants to
expand the program. Unreal.
Nothing in the Green Act deserves
to see the light of day in the Senate,
especially the expansion of electric
vehicle tax breaks. But if it does, Presi-
dent Trump should make clear that he’ll
have his veto pen ready.
———
Phil Kerpen is the president of
American Commitment and the
author of “Democracy Denied.” Ker-
pen can be reached at phil@ameri-
cancommitment.org.
Send letters to the editor to
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave.
Pendleton, OR 97801